Lasagna

Lasagna - Eggplants and spinach with minced pork

 I made the bechemel sauce from Thermomix. Took only 7 minutes. how crazy is that and it was smooth nice. I left it to stand too long so you can see the top starting to curd. the sauce was not enough, i need to make 2 batch of this next time. see recipe here

 

 The vegetables were massive. 1 large eggplant, 1 zucchini, 1 carrot and handful of spinach. Plus one onion and few cloves of garlic. All minced and mashed up like baby food in the Thermomix.

 I started browning the minced pork. Added some veggie stock and when they are almost pink i pour in the veggies. There were way too much veggies i think. I definitely overdose on this sauce. Then came in the mushrooms and the pasta sauce, tomato paste, bay leaves dried oregano and seasoning all over.
The sauce tasted so veggie. Might have trouble with Jovan eating it.

 After it is cooked for around 10 minutes, time to get ready to layer the lasagna. I bought store made lasagna sheets.

I covered the bottom with the sheets, then top up with bechemel sauce, meat sauce then bechemel sauce then grated cheese then lasagna sheets. it when on and on for 3 layers.

 in the oven it goes.

 after baking for 45 minutes. the top part was not cook as there is not enough sauce to cover it. So next time definitely need to cover with meat sauce on top. Alot of cheese went into this dish.<

Another version with fresh sheets. See how different the sheets turned out. The packed ones got burnt easily as there were not enough sauce covering the top. The fresh ones cooked nicely and have a yummy crunch. I cooked this version with fresh Latino Sheets and also their Fresh Pasta Sauce. Sauce can easily be made in the Thermomix but i just wanted to try out the Latino brand.
The fresh sheets really mark a difference and is highly recommended.
The sauce, i will make it on my own next time but it definitely taste healthier than the bottled ones.
I made this lasagna with 8 fresh sheets, 6 sheets for the big tray and 2 for the smaller ones.
Vegetables used this time, minced Kale + Carrot + Zucchini. Added more fresh tomatoes, seasoning and just taste as it goes. Mushrooms when into this lasagna as well.
Verdict: much yummier than the previous one I made. Will continue to fine tune for a not so fatty version.:)

Macaroni Pasta and Vegetable sauce

Macaroni Pasta with veggie sauce


no recipe for this. Adapted from the Thermomix one. But i added my own veggies and whatever i have leftover in the pantry.
Veggies used - blitz up Kale, Celery, Onion, Garlic, Carrot, Basil Leaves
Sauce - Mushrooms, Tomato paste, Tomato Puree, lots of red wine for the sauce and myself, water, salt, oregano, nutmeg, sugar, fresh tomatoes
Meat - angus minced beef- 500gms.
I used Thermomix to cook this. Added a bit of everything, tasting as i go along.
Cooked the Macaroni last and kids manage to finish up one bowl. They are not a fan of pasta anymore but this is one of the best way to hide the veggies in and i absolutely love it. 

I finished up the whole bunch of kale this week. Next week i will be trying out some other veggies like beets and celeriac.

Spinach Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

Spinach and Carrot Pork balls with tomato sauce

This is just a simply whack it in dinner. No recipe to follow. I just tried to mince as much vegies into the smallest possible size in the Thermomix. Mixed it with the minced pork. Added seasoning and my vegie stock. Yes my kids are deprived of vegetables. It is just so hard to get any form of vegetables in their diet. if they see it, they won't consume it.



i patiently rolled all the balls and place them on a baking tray before getting it ready to fry in batches. Another wonder invention is the Phillips Air Fryer. With only a drop of oil, i manage to fry this whole tray of meat balls

The first batch was obviously in for too long. i cut it down to 15 mins after that instead of 20 and they were all fine after that.






 While the meatballs were frying, i worked on the sauce. This is just tomato can soup and adding bits of tomato paste, bits of sweet mustard pickles (oh my!! this thing is soooo good), bits of sugar, vinegar. Just simmer and keep tasting to get the desired taste. My sauce was abit too tart due to the amount of tomato paste used but still OK once the meatballs goes in.

Also juggling cooking the macaronis in between frying the meatballs. It would have been nicer if spaghetti were used instead of the elbows.